war topic

[Samcro]

any chance of a covid style war topic for all the "are we going to war " threads please.

It isn't the creation of the topic that is the issue. It's the thread police who believe that existence of a topic means that they're entitled to dictate where other people should post.

There are lots of topics in Chat and AIBU that I don't find particularly interesting. I don't complain that people have put them on the wrong boards, though. I just accept that other people want to talk about them and scroll on.

I agree that the problem is the number of threads on Ukraine that are just wild and unhelpful speculation.

A separate topic shouldn’t make much difference to those who want to have a discussion about what’s in the news, but the nature of MN means that it isn’t the best place to actually learn what is in the news.

I guess there will be a separate topic quite soon, as there was with Brexit and with Covid - that's my prediction anyway

But they can filter this out anyway if they hide the general boards and just focus on the topics that are relevant to them.

There is more traffic on the general boards so if you hide them you miss a lot of Mumsnet.

The point is not to stop serious and informed discussion, but to make it possible to filter out threads that are unhelpful. I don’t think that somebody struggling with a recent miscarriage or worrying about their child’s health or money problems needs to see threads about the imminent end of the world.

Maybe things will settle down in a few days, but I think it has been very helpful to have a separate Covid board.

@User5rh

I guess there will be a separate topic quite soon, as there was with Brexit and with Covid - that's my prediction anyway

It makes complete sense to me for there to be one.

Actualy rather than a separate war topic I think that MN HQ need to firstly be more on the ball with how many of these posts there are and who is posting them.

It does mean extra reporting on our part but honestly the amount of threads I’ve seen on here which have been started by first time posters it’s very obvious that most of the threads aren’t being posted with genuine intent but are fuelling the fears and anxieties of some which is why they then get out of hand.

Advance search is your friend. Perhaps if people did a quick advance search and reported any post started by first time posters HQ could concentrate on that and perhaps weed a lot of threads out on the basis they’re obviously being posted by bots trolls and journalists.

Bearing in mind the trolls and bots wouldn’t post on a war topic anyway so they’d need reporting to get them moved if there was a topic, why not just start by doing that now then the majority of them would IMO be deleted anyway.

That's a good point @AlternativePerspective, and something that should have happened on the Covid topic a long time ago.
Especially the ones with deliberately scaremongering titles. There's a lot of posters with agendas on here these days.

I feel that people are already off to the shops to panic buy as we speak.

I agree with everything @saraclara says, but I also think it may be worth waiting a week or two first to see if some of the more, er, out there threads die down of their own accord. If the military action stays within Ukraine for now then people are probably going to calm down with the alarmism fairly soon, and we can have a few long-running sensible threads in the main boards like we do with US politics and other major current affairs topics. I really do sympathise with the people who don't want to be confronted with end of the world is nigh posts every time they open the site - neither do I, frankly - but if that's only a brief phenomenon it would be a shame to have the worthwhile threads shunted to less active boards because of it.

@AlternativePerspective makes an excellent point too. Reporting and removing obvious troll/agenda-driven threads would be a good way to both help the people who are feeling particularly anxious and also make room for informed discussion about what's actually happening within Ukraine, without it getting drowned out by floods of "do you think we'll conscript women and children too" nonsense.

Yes the 'Do you think.....' threads where everyone has a good guess and polishes off their crystal balls.

I don’t want a separate topic

It’s easy enough to avoid what doesn’t interest you, or hide the thread

Maybe we could have a temporary rule about accounts having to be 90 days old to start a new thread on the topic, like on the Sex board, to help weed out the threads that are started by new posters just to wind people up? I doubt it could be automatically enforced without creating a separate board but it might encourage more people to report them.

@MarshaBradyo

I don’t want a separate topic

It’s easy enough to avoid what doesn’t interest you, or hide the thread

that is true to some extent......easy to hide threads with something in the title that lets you know....but then you get one about the weather. open it and its about war!!!!!

I saw that one @Samcro , I was hoping for a discussion about possibility of snow. I see that ones been taken down now.

@psychomath

I agree with everything @saraclara says, but I also think it may be worth waiting a week or two first to see if some of the more, er, 'out there/wacky' threads die down of their own accord. If the military action stays within Ukraine for now then people are probably going to calm down with the alarmism fairly soon, and we can have a few long-running sensible threads in the main boards like we do with US politics and other major current affairs topics.

I really do sympathise with the people who don't want to be confronted with 'the end of the world is nigh posts' every time they open the site - neither do I, frankly - but if that's only a brief phenomenon it would be a shame to have the worthwhile threads shunted to less active boards because of it.

@AlternativePerspective makes an excellent point too. Reporting and removing obvious troll/agenda-driven threads would be a good way to both help the people who are feeling particularly anxious and also make room for informed discussion about what's actually happening within Ukraine, without it getting drowned out by floods of "do you think we'll conscript women and children too" nonsense.

Very good post. Yeah, let's leave it a wee while (a few days/maybe a week,) and then maybe consider a separate topic if the AIBU board becomes overrun with ludicrous click bait threads like the sort @Sparklingbrook mentioned.

A also think it would a good idea when something huge like this happens, to put a temporary block on mumsnet to stop anyone on AIBU posting threads unless they have been here 3 months or even just 1 month..

And no-one can do it with a name change either. I am sure usernames FannyMcFlutter and AnyPlucker, can go 3 months without having to post about their neighbour's car encroaching on their land by a single inch, complaining about the plumber having a number 2 in their precious downstairs loo, or their mother-in-law making a negative comment about their shoes!

Maybe we could have a temporary rule about accounts having to be 90 days old to start a new thread on the topic, like on the Sex board, to help weed out the threads that are started by new posters just to wind people up? I doubt it could be automatically enforced without creating a separate board but it might encourage more people to report them. actually I think it would be a good idea t stop all new sign-ups for a period, maybe 14 days or so, to let this one settle.

Ive just reported one which is so blatantly spam it’s unreal. First time poster, flooding the thread with posts, becoming incredibly aggressive towards anyone who has asked questions etc and accusing them of bullying and posting #beKind etc. I’ll admit I have openly stated on the thread that I’ve reported it.

If we could stop this kind of posting, and here MN HQ need to be on board, then we could probably cut the number of threads by about 99%.

I think a War topic (though ideally not called that) is a good idea.
It's not that I want to read hysterical, fear mongering posts but some threads have been interesting and informative.

It's the inverse of early pandemic times...it took a long time for most people to realise it really was going to affect us and accept that it wasn't all exaggeration and hyperbole.
This time around the hysteria has come first while others are watchfully waiting.

AlternativePerspective makes a really good point. I read several threads yesterday by what appeared to be first time posters, quite obviously just whipping other posters up into a frenzy and attempting to panic everyone. Maybe I'm just cynical, but I swear every third thread on AIBU, regardless of the topic, is by a troll.

@Sparklingbrook

I saw that one *@Samcro* , I was hoping for a discussion about possibility of snow. I see that ones been taken down now.

I didn't see that one! So someone actually started a thread about snow, but the content was about the war?

See THIS is the kind of shit that people are on about. Not a decent, level-headed discussion, but click-bait, nonsense threads, 3 or 4 an hour, (sometimes more,) with ludicrous and baity titles.

I probably shouldn't have said it's boring seeing them, and it was late at night and I was very tired, so I used the wrong adjective. I should have said it's annoying and exasperating to see thread after thread after thread posted on there, instead of people just popping their views and opinions onto existing threads.

People are entitled to say they don't want to see so many, as for some, it can make them anxious and worried, and can be triggering and upsetting. And it doesn't mean they don't give a shit about people suffering, that they don't care, and are only thinking of the next pair of fancy shoes they can buy.

Nothing is mutually exclusive, and people can not want to see lots of threads about Russia and Ukraine, and still be worried for them and care about their welfare FFS. I can't believe anyone would even suggest that people don't care, and have fuck-all worries in their life if 'all they have to worry about it threads on mumsnet.' So rude and ignorant and narrow minded!

Some of the threads are blatant Putinesque propaganda.

It's grim to think that MN is being used as a way of spreading disinformation, like FaceBook, but ... I think it's already happening.

I already have a step-DiL who thinks we are already literally at war with Russia . I can guarantee that my older DSD will by midday be worried about her 11 year old DD being forced to join the army. All because of Facebook. If Mumsnet could remain a place of sanity it would be extremely helpful - a public service even.

So I agree that new posters shouldn't currently be able to start threads on any matter relating to Russia or Ukraine. I think the enforced wait, as for the Sex Topic, is a good idea. And maybe I'll start Advanced Searching and reporting more.

@Lampface

Lumping a war and a word game into the same box is actually disgusting.

MN please don't make a separate topic, these conversations are important.

@lampface

Maybe check the date that I posted that comment.

MN please don't make a separate topic, these conversations are important.

I don't disagree that the sensible threads are important, but how does having them in a seperate topic stop you from reading them or commenting?

Some of the threads from today are insane/goady/scaremongering nonsense and only serve to distort what is actually happening in the real world.

actually I think it would be a good idea t stop all new sign-ups for a period, maybe 14 days or so, to let this one settle.

I did also think about this but I'm not sure if that would be too extreme as a response? I would agree if it was just a casual chat forum but a lot of people find the site after miscarriages and other major life events, and I don't like the idea of those posters being locked out of accessing support because of a minority of twats. There aren't that many Russia posts, it's not like it's making the site completely unuseable or anything.

I do like @BearOfEasttown's idea about a temporary minimum account age for posting in AIBU during major events that attract heavy trolling, although I think it would have to be extended to Chat too as the posters would just move there otherwise.

It's the inverse of early pandemic times...it took a long time for most people to realise it really was going to affect us and accept that it wasn't all exaggeration and hyperbole. This time around the hysteria has come first while others are watchfully waiting.

The thing with the early pandemic was we had a trickle of news stories gradually increasing over several months, until there were multiple headline events per day that were becoming increasingly relevant to the UK, so both the interest and fear levels were kept up for an extended time as more and more people realised it was actually going to affect us directly. That's (hopefully..!) not likely to be the pattern with this - unless there are any major new developments in the next couple of weeks, most people are probably going to lose interest apart from those who have direct ties to Eastern Europe and/or an interest in current affairs generally, at which point the threads will become informative and useful. Which is why I'm not sure it's worth creating a new topic at this stage, because we do want those threads to be seen once the goady ones are gone.

On my laptop I just tick the box down the right hand side....hide hide hide

No need to open threads

I can't do that on mine. I have to open the thread to see the 'hide thread' option

I can hide threads without opening them on my phone and laptop, but some of the thread titles alone are